1984 Essay, Research Paper
In the world of 1984, Winston rebels against the party, but not only does he do it in a different ways but his displeasure with the society leads him on to rebel numerous times. First of all, Winston has committed a “thought crime”, a crime which is used to prevent the individual from thinking and the penalty for committing a thought crime was death (so he thought). Winston knew he was guilty for the crime but at the same time he assumes that he is not going to be detected or caught, at least in he beginning.
One thing Winston did was keeping a diary. A diary was of the more serious thought crimes. In his diary, it is pointed out of his sexual frustrations, along with the displeasure of society as a whole. In his diary, he expresses that he longs for the pleasures of the past that were once allowed but no longer due to the power of the Party. However his frustration leads to other things that were also deemed illegal and would eventually lead to his final downfall.
Winston later goes on and meets a woman named Julia. He knows what he is doing is definitely wrong and is a crime but his dissatisfaction with life and his sexual frustration lead him to the wrong conclusion. That he still thinks that he can get away with this and that the thought police will never catch him. This is where Winston unconsciously seals his fate of being caught but he feels the adventure is well worth the risk. Later in the relationship, they both are aware that the end to them is near.
There were a couple of things that Winston owned that were deemed illegal but ironically the glass paperweight seemed to be the most important. First of all, the paperweight serves no purpose in the world that Winston lives in. Another thing about it was that it represented individuality to him because he thought of it as a world in which he and Julia lived in and nobody could touch it, even the Party. Finally, it reminded him of the past, the past in which there was a better world and a world in which the Party never wanted anybody to think about again.
“Ignorance is Stregenth”, one of the terms coined along with “War is Peace” and “Freedom is Slavery”, is used by the Party as a way of brainwashing the people of Oceania. One of the main terms used as a way of describing the Party’s position on thought crimes is “Ingsoc”. Ingsoc believes that anyone who is guilty is guilty because thinking on your own is the complete reverse of the reality of the society. Basically this is a way of condemning and brainwashing the people into thinking that they are wrong about everything and the Party is always right so don’t go against what the Party says.
There are many strategies in which the Party hopes to ensure success with its totalitarian rule. One was to start young, with the children. Children are the key to ensuring success by having them brainwashed early, when they are most vulnerable, and by doing so, ensure success that they will grow up and be totally under the Party’s control.
Another strategy that the party used was fear. Fear is a tool by which everyone can be controlled. Anyone who ever doubted the Party’s power was quickly arrested or killed. A most useful strategy in getting everyone’s attention to show that the Party is totally serious about everyone following what they say and do. The thought police are the enforcers of the rules and along with them comes total power to do what is necessary to make sure order is taken. One thing about the thought police is that they are everywhere, no one knows who they are until you are arrested. They keep themselves in totally secrecy until a crime has been committed. This is how they keep fear in the hearts of the people.
Finally, the future of the Party’s rule lies in the idea of Newspeak, the eleventh edition, where all words which are unnecessary will be destroyed and new works will be invented so that thought crimes will be impossible. This system basically will eliminate all words which prove to be sources of thought crimes like “good” or “hope”. This system will soon lead to the destruction of human thought and we will become slaves forever to the Party.
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